Buffalo, NY (WGR 550) - With Victor Olofsson out five-to-six weeks with a lower-body injury and Jeff Skinner out two-to-three more weeks with an upper-body injury, the goal-challenged Sabres are going to be challenged more. Including the injured Tage Thompson, five forwards that were in Rochester are up with the big club. Ralph Krueger said, "You look at what you have, not what don't have and there's no room for emotion. You need to put the best possible group together to compete against Florida and deal with Victor as a separate issue until he returns."
Now that doesn't mean the loss won't be felt. Krueger said, "Of course he's been a very important catalyst to the good things that are happening here and we need to fill that hole.
"Guys need to step up as we had the same situation with Jeff, so it's definitely a challenging situation, but we'll pull together and fill that hole."
Rasmus Asplund played all season on a line with Olofsson in Rochester, so they're very good friends. Asplund said they can't sit around and feel sorry for themselves, "We just have to keep going. We're on the right path here and you always will have injuries in a season and a strong group just keeps going."
Olofsson hit a rut on the ice and went down. That leads to the question, is the ice in the arena bad? Krueger said no, "Ruts do develop in the course of play and that was a real freaky one where he caught an edge in one of those ruts and it's a low mathematical situation. So we're not blaming that on the ice at all."
Asplund got the first chance on Thursday to fill in on Jack Eichel's line. Krueger said, "There's a defensive component to that position releasing Jack and Sam with the confidence of who's playing with them will cover too, and what we're seeing in Asplund's game is that two-way awareness."
Asplund said he doesn't change his game just because he's playing with Eichel, "I'm just going to try to bring my game to Jack and Sam and see what I can do for those guys."
In 24 games with the Sabres, Asplund has one goal and two assists. He's always been a player that has been strong at both ends of the ice and he's fully confident his offensive game will come in the NHL, "I'm just trying to find my path here and trying to get used to the NHL level, but I know I can bring a lot of offense and points to this league."
Jack Eichel didn't practice on Friday. Krueger called it a maintenance day because of the minutes Eichel has played lately. On Thursday, Eichel played 23:56, while on Tuesday it was 25:13.
Michael Frolik said he is working on his visa problems, but with the weekend coming up, feels it's going to take a couple of days. Obviously he won't play this Saturday against Florida.
Dalton Smith cleared waivers, but did practice with the team. He also changed his number to 77 so Frolik can have 67.
Join Brian Koziol Saturday at noon for the pregame on WBEN News Radio 930. Joining him will be Krueger, Asplund and Scott Wilson.
Friday's lines:
Asplund - Rodrigues - Reinhart
Vesey - Johansson - Sheary
Girgensons - Larsson - Okposo
Wilson - Lazar - Smith
